MD/MBA ProgramElectives

School of Medicine Electives

Business and Politics in Medicine Lecture Series
Sponsored by the UC Irvine Chapter of the American Medical Association. This is a 10-week lecture series that will introduce 1st- and 2nd- year medical students to physicians, politicians, lawyers and other professionals who are experts in the business of medicine.

698A Medical Economics Elective
Offered to 3rd- and 4th-year medical students. It is a 2- or 4-week experience.

698B Business of Healthcare
Offered to all medical students. Mandatory for all MD/MBA students. Meets monthly.
One unit shows on transcript but doesn’t count toward graduation.

Business School Electives

Forty-two units of elective courses apply toward the 92 units required for the MBA degree. Students select electives with respect to their educational and career goals and interests.

Functional areas include:

Accounting

Finance

Healthcare Management

Information Systems

Marketing

Operations & Decision Technologies

Organizational Behavior & Strategy

Public Policy

Elective courses develop additional depth in a discipline or interdisciplinary area, or specialized competence in the use of a particular set of technical tools and methods. Students may not utilize more than six electives in one functional area toward the MBA degree.

Business School Healthcare Electives

The following is a sample of healthcare-related courses previously offered at the business school:

262 Managing Nonprofits
Designed for students interested in the management of nonprofit organizations. Examines similarities and differences between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, major management issues specifically associated with nonprofits, and exposes students to career opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

266 Economics of Health Care Services
Uses the basic tools of microeconomics to study the organization and delivery of medical care services in the United States. The economic criteria of efficiency and equity are used to analyze the performance of health care markets, government programs and public policies affecting both.

267 Understanding Managed Care
Covers all aspects of the "managed care revolution," emphasizing the latest development and future trends. Topics include market competition and organizational strategy, the changing role of providers, integrated delivery systems, quality management and the impact of new technologies.

264 U.S. Health Policy
Course provides an overview of U.S. health policy with a particular emphasis on current policy developments and debates. Students will be introduced to the basic tools of policy analysis and will apply them to health policy issues.

290 Healthcare Entrepreneurship: From Physician to CEO
Course is structured to build business development skills to create and manage a medical practice or a science-based enterprise. The class will center on the value proposition of small ventures in a large pharmaceutical/healthcare provider-dominated industry and how one can maximize the potential of such an undertaking.

290 U.S. Health Policy
Course will examine health policies as they affect the two major health care issues: efficiency and redistribution, namely, the rising cost of healthcare and subsidies and regulations affecting access to care. Topics include Medicare reform and tax exempt employer health insurance, as well as proposals for universal coverage, such as refundable tax credits, individual mandates, employer mandates and single payer systems.

290 Management of Biotechnology
This class is intended for students with no or limited exposure to the biotechnology industry. The aim is to highlight the industry from several vantage points: drug development (how are new drugs found, how are clinical studies carried out), regulatory issues (how is FDA approval obtained), management issues (what is the internal structure of a biotechnology company), financial issues (including operating capital, sales and marketing), social issues (the cost of biotech drugs to society, price controls, ethics) and a primer on science for the non-scientist.

290 Development of New Ventures in Healthcare Services
The emphasis of the course is to introduce the student to the process of developing a medical services company. The use of case studies and outside lecturers, e.g., entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, are designed to provide the student with knowledge, skills and insights into the entrepreneurial process as it applies to health care delivery.

290 IT in Healthcare
Information technology plays a central role in prominent strategies aimed at controlling health care costs and improving quality. The challenges associated with achieving these goals arise from economic and organizational factors that are generic to the adoption of new technologies as well as unique institutional features of the health care industry. This course provides an overview of these issues, with an emphasis on both the strategic decisions facing firms and the implications of those decisions for the health care system and social welfare. Cases studied will focus on technologies that impact health care providers, payers and consumer/patients.